Z is for Zombies

I started the day needing to write 4 different posts for the A to Z Challenge for bloggers in the month of April. Well, here I am at Z. I made it. This is it. The last post. I promise I'll be brief.

What else is there better to write about at the end than 'the end'?

None of us want to die, right? Are we all in agreement there? If not I always say... but I digress. The end is nigh. Inevitable. We dread it. Yet, we're obsessed with it, can't get enough of it. You hear somebody died a horrible death, the first thing you do is ask for details.

It may also explains why zombies are so popular all of a sudden. I just don't believe that's the only reason.

It's not like they're new. George Romero become one of horror movie's most famous directs basically by introducing us to the creatures we know as zombies today. Now we got 'The Walking Dead', the Black Ops series of Call of Duty games, (whose zombie killing mode, complete with classic, actual terrifying zombies, make this series one of the best in the whole CoD line), and we even got zombies in romantic situations.

'i Zombie', any one? Have yall seen 'Warm Bodies'?

But why are they so popular all of a sudden really? I mean death has been around 'ever. We've been curious about it just as long. So why now?

I can't answer this question but that doesn't bug me. I'm more concerned about the zombies becoming the new vampires. As a life long fan of all things horror, seeing vampires frolicking through the woods in Twilight really irks the shit outta me. Vampires are the most romanticized monsters of our imagination these days. I blame Sookie's boyfriends and #TeamEdward for this but at least Charlaine Harris made her vampires revert back to their classic forms from time to time.

Give me a kiss, baby!

If zombies go the way of vampires, I'm gonna start #TeamCthulhu. I wanna see this monster get romanticized.       






. Later WORLD!!


Smokkee Singleton

Y is for Yin Yang (#AtoZChallenge)

Before I begin this post I'd like to scream one thing:

♫FROM THE WINDOW TO THE WAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLL♫♪♫

Sorry. Every time I used to hear somebody mention "Ying Yang", that song by them twins would pop up in my head. Now, it's more than just a song to me. It's a way of life.

I've spent most of these A to Z blog posts explaining what I don't believe in. Let me see if I can explain something I DO believe in. Problem here is I don't believe in much of anything, really, as far as theories about life go, but 2 things: karma and balance.



I'm a good man, now, in my opinion. If I met another me, I'd be cool with having that me as a friend....now.I mean I'm not out here trying to hurt nobody... now. Not out here robbing people, or setting other people back because I'm trying to get ahead. Of course I'm talking about right now. See, I haven't always been able to say that but I've been able to say it since my late 20's. I'm 40 now. According to what I call my karma calculator, I got a few more years to go of having all the bad stuff I've done or the stuff I've done that wasn't quite nice boomeranging back to me. I ain't mad. Hell, I did the crimes...

That's just my theory though so I could be wrong here. But my other theory on balance, even if I'm completely wrong about it, still leaves me in a better place. The way I figure it is every time I feel life isn't going the right way for me, or maybe karma is just giving me what I deserve, do something right. Any photographer who worked with a real camera before will tell you that for every pretty picture you see, there's a negative for it. I think life is like that too. For every negative action you cause, life will boomerang it back to you eventually. Might not be that same day or the same year, maybe even another lifetime perhaps, but it'll catch up with you eventually. Don't laugh. I'm sure I'm not the only person who believes that.

But think about this. What if positive actions work the same way? And even if they don't, doing good for other people usually makes you feel good as a person. Who doesn't want to feel good? Even if my theory is off, I still wind up feeling better about the person I am now. At least that's just how I think life works. It works for my life at least.

Later, World. Actually, I got one more post to right and I'm done so I guess I mena to say I'll be right back.

X is for Xenophobia (#AtoZChallenge)

On a few of these A to Z posts, maybe B, definitely V, I've talked about what's going on around us and how it's affecting us. I tried to explain why it's happening. There's no way to explain it with out mention xenophobia.

Xenophoia is defined as the fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners. Just taking the literal definition for what it's worth, xenophobia refers to fear of 50-80% of everybody else on the planet. Literally.

Now give the definition further thought.

Fear of foreigners is pretty straight forward. You know your own race or what your nationality is,  right? You'd be surprised how many people don't. I'd imagine there would be a lot less racist people if they really knew how many pureblood, one nationality people still existed today. Any of them still being alive would surprise me.

Think of the term 'strangers' now. How many people have you known for a while whom you've lost contact with for a brief period of time and after reconnecting realize you no longer really know that person? There's people you see everyday of your lives that you absolute know nothing about except that you see them everyday or, if you're xenophobic, the even scary fact that they probably see you everyday too?

Hell, even think about your own family. As highly unlikely as it seems, some people you can be around your entire life and you still wouldn't actually know that person. You've seen examples of it before, I'm sure. Somebody is arrested for something and the first thing some of the parents of the detained say is "No. My baby didn't do that. I know my baby wouldn't do something like that." and then they turn out to be guilty af.

I know, I know, extreme circumstance in this case but I'm just trying to prove a point. That point is unless you're two people at once, there's no way to really know, well, anybody. That would make a xenopobic person scared of not 50-80% of the people in the world but 100%.  And you already know one thing about cowards is they become dangerous when threatened and they damn near always feel threatened. Ask George Zimmerman.

It all goes back to what I was saying a few post back. The more you know, the less things will bother you. I was just speaking about people and things in general but this goes especially for xenophobic people. Educate yourselves, xenophobes, for all our sakes.


Smokkee 

V is for Violence (#AtoZChallenge)

If I know one thing about you, whoever you are, I know this:

I know you're tired of violence.

I mean you might love action flicks or you may love all things horror like I do but if you feel like me, even with my infinite love for the horror genre, you're surely tired of it.  Especially if you grew up seeing it everywhere, like I did. Especially if you live in Chicago, like I do, where violence seems to never end. Especially if you've lost some loved ones to violence, as I have. 

Especially when the violence is being perpetrated by the whose job it is to prevent said violence. And now there's a new spokesperson for this: Freddie Gray

Nah. You can't tell me you're OK with violence. You're far from OK with violence unless you're far from violence but I doubt you are. Last time I checked, Antarctica was unpopulated. That's about as far from violence as humanly possible these days and even then, wouldn't you still be fighting weather conditions?

It's some things I don't understand about violence and how we talk about it. The terminology we use in terms of violence confuse me. "Senseless violence." for instance. When is violence not senseless?

Try and answer that if you want to. Go ahead. I'll wait but I'm tired of it.

Meanwhile, in Baltimore.

And apparently at this very moment, Baltimore, with good reason, is even more tired of it than I am and letting the world know they are tired or it.

But I hope it doesn't add more violence to an already ultraviolent world.

Later, yall.

Smokkee

Q is for Quit (#AtoZChallenge)

Smokkee here. Yes, I'm still playing catch up in this A to Z blogging challenge but the key is I'm still playing. The key is I haven't given up. I almost did. A few times. Which brings me to the purpose of this post. My message is so simple, this may be the briefest post I've ever wrote. Even briefer than the post I made about politics.

Don't be a quitter. Nobody likes a quitter, WORLD. Never give up. EVER!

Told ya I would be brief.


Later, WORLD!
Smokkee Singleton

P is for Politcs (#AtoZChallenge)

Hello, WORLD!! A few post back I touched a little bit on politics and religion, the two topics that may have caused more arguments any other two topics ever or maybe all of the other topics together. I said I don't care for politics. I think I need to clarify myself a little. Seriously, just a little. Don't worry. I'll be very brief.

I don't care for politicians to the point that I promise will NEVER vote for any politician ever. The reasoning behind this is everybody is out for self. Aren't you? Even if you say something like "Not me. I'm all about my kids/family/spouse/etc.", you're out for self;  those other people are just extensions of yourself.

I don't even like talking about politics in general. The reason being is they damn near always lead to conflict. No 2 people will have the same views on every subject ever which is were the conflict arises. For example, some people say abortion is bad and are all for the death penalty, some people would say the opposite, and within both of those groups, I promise we can find another topic that would cause another unnecessary argument. Hell, they'll even argue over which of these actions is murder and which is not even though you know... Nope. won't cause an unnecessary argument here. The US's 2016 presidential candidates will do enough of that without needing any my help.
 
Which brings me to another point. There will never be a right candidate. Nobody will come along and do everything for everybody because, as I pointed out in the above paragraph, that would be impossible.

There's more, tons more, reasons I'm not into politics but I'm done. Nuff said. I'm giving myself a headache just thinking about politics.

Later WORLD.. wait, I mean BRB.    

O is for Ozymandias (#AtoZChallenge)

Hello, WORLD. I'm usually known as Smokkee but just for today only, feel free to call me Stupid. I promise I'll respond to it. On a lesser note, I feel Stupid because like I Tweeted yesterday:

2nd day in a row opportunity knocked, got impatient, & left before I even got a chance to open my door.
— Smokkee G Singleton (@MrGBIZ) April 22, 2015

I don't miss opportunities too often but 2 days in row is too much. I can't & won't let it become a trend.
— Smokkee G Singleton (@MrGBIZ) April 22, 2015

Like I say, that's the lesser note. The real reason I feel Stupid with a capitol S is I'm already behind a few posts in this A to Z blogging challenge as is and here I am submitting another O post when I should be my T post right now.

Why another O post anyway? Based on the subject matter, I could easily make this post P for Poem, right? Or R for Regret would probably work for this post as well but since Ozymandias is the poem's real name, since I want to address politics (fairly quickly, I promise!) with my P post and since I already have my R post done, why not just submit another O post, make playing catch up even harder by tying my hands up unnecessarily?

So, call me Stupid.

Anyway, I'm sure you're familiar with Ozymandias on some level. According to it's Wikipedia page, it was a poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley about the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II. Wait, it wasn't A poem; there was actually two. Shelley engaged in a poetry contest with his friend and fellow port Horace Smith. You can read Smith's Ozymandias poem here. While they both address the decaying remnants of Ramesses' empire, which had been gone for about 500-600 years before they were even born, it's Shelley version that is the one that struck a cord with me.

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Walter White, realizing how true this poem is, on Breaking Bad

Even if one is not familiar with the poem itself, one may still be familiar with it's use in pop culture and what it represents. If you're familiar with the hit TV show Breaking Bad, you're familiar with this poem. Bryan Cranston, the actor who won a few Emmys for his portrayal of the show's lead character, high school chemistry teacher turned crystal meth cook Walter White, famously recites this poem in a promo for the fifth and final season, aptly setting the tone for a dark ending. The pivotal episode of season 5, the one where this scene with Walter White crying in anguish takes place, is also named after the poem.

Matthew Goode as Ozymandias in 'Watchmen'

 Then again, maybe if you've read the critically acclaimed Alan Moore graphic novel called 'Watchmen' or seen the critically panned (unnecessarily, in my opinion) 2009 film adaptation of the comic, you're at least familiar with the name Ozymandias. Adrian Veidt (played by Matthew Goode just the way I imagined him) was a former superhero named Ozymandias who used revealing his identity to the public to become a rich businessman until they were disbanded by a government law. He later rejoins his fellow heroes to find out who has killed another superhero named the Comedian since it appears all the former heroes where being attacked.

Now, I'm sorry if you want to hear more about the plot at this point but there's no way to go further into it without spoiling it. I'll eventually go into more details about this, but not here. Very shortly, I promise. My W post, perhaps.



Anyway, those are some of the modern day influences of this poem but it's biggest influence to me is on me myself. I'm working how I'm working, multitasking like crazy, for what? To further explain, take this A to Z challenge I'm working on. I'm working on it, once again, like crazy. I've done more blogging these past 2 weeks than any other writing, including on my own short stories. When I pass, I believe my legacy will be defined by what I leave behind. Do I wanna be known as a great author or a tenacious blogger? Based on my work output this week, I'd say the latter. Regardless, since I won't be here, isn't it all for naught anyway? Thinking about this should give me this really nihilistic view of things and of life in general but yet, in spite of that, I push forward anyway. Why? Well that's a question that I can't answer. I don't even have a best guess but I know I can't stop. I don't ever give up. I simply can't do it. Speaking of which, I gotta finish these catch up posts ASAP.


Later, WORLD!
Smokkee